Friday, 31 December 2010

For Lim Min, she is going to RI. While she takes about 20 mins to travel by MRT & bus to RGS, she will now need to spend about 40 mins to travel to RI (Queenstown MRT to Marymount MRT). I heard from ex-RGS now-RI parents that students are much busier in RI and they have to take 2 CCAs, which means they work harder and play harder as compared to when they are in secondary school! Lim Min will be taking GP and 4 H2s - Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Economics. She has done very well for her Maths (scoring 98 & 100 for the Maths 1 & Maths 2) and 3 Sciences (scoring 90 or close) while in RGS so it's a pity that she has to drop Biology to take the contrasting subject, Economics. But I heard Economics is an interesting subject so I guess, you lose some and you gain some.

For Lim Jeck, he is going to have an incredibly busy schedule! He is taking two NUS modules - Linear Algebra from NUS Faculty of Science and Competitive Programming (this module is free and ungraded) from the School of Computing. On top of that, he has the usual National Team Training at NUS Math Dept on Saturday mornings. Including the NUS modules, I think his timetable will have 2 days that end at 6 pm, 2 days end at 7 pm (Linear Algebra, 4-7 pm) and 1 day ends at 9 pm (Competitive Programming, 6-9 pm). He did well for his previous NUS module - Calculus and got an A+, which means he is able to claim the bulk of the course fee from NUS High. I think NUS High really suits him to a T, as he can enjoy working on his passion while maximising his potential in his strong areas - maths, physics, chemistry and programming.

For Lim Li, next year is PSLE year. Needless to say, she will have to stay back in school most of the days and her school teachers are going to give her tonnes of homework in preparation for the PSLE. She should have no problem doing well for Maths and Science, but I think she has to put in more effort for English and Chinese, her weaker subjects. I am sure her Chinese teacher, Ms Chai, will do the necessary to prepare the class well, so Lim Li should do all right (hopefully, get a high A) as long as she does all the work assigned by Ms Chai, diligently. I am more worried for her English. Maybe I would work out a schedule to revise English with her.

Thursday, 30 December 2010

"Hikaru No Go" is a Japanese comic manga series as well as anime. It is our family favourite, as even my parents also read the comic books and watched the DVDs which we borrowed from the libraries. It also piques our interest in the Go game, which we are playing now :)

Hikaru No Go is the story of a 6-grader, Shindo Hikaru (left on above picture: boy with yellow hair), who by chance meets a 1000-year old ghost, Fujiwarano Sai (right on above picture: man with almost lady-like features) , who was trapped in a Go Board before his release. Together, Hikaru Shindo and Sai make a great go-playing team and they follow the path that leads them to the divine move or "Hand of God"; along the way they meet many memorable characters, such as Waya, Isumi, Ochi and Hikaru's and Sai's respective destined rivals, Touya Akira and Touya Kouyo.

There are many touching scenes such as those depicting the close friendship ties fostered between Hikaru and Sai, as well as among the the group of friends as they graduate from Insei to become Pro, or professional Go players, the integrity conflict and how a depressed Hikaru goes searching for Sai when he leaves suddenly. This is definitely a manga which I would recommend to anyone, even if you don't play Go.

Thursday, 23 December 2010

My family went for a 4 Days 3 Nights Best of Malaysia on Royal Caribbean Cruise (Legend of The Seas) from 20 Dec to 23 Dec. We stayed in 2 rooms, Oceanview stateroom, Deck 2. It was a relaxing and enjoyable trip, with lots of fun games, rock climbing and delectable food. We also joined the shore excursion to Penang - visit to butterfly farm, SEA's longest bridge, kampongs.

Playing table soccer.

Playing wii.

Endless supply of twist ice cream.

Lobster and elephant made by our stateroom attendant.

Towel folding class where we learnt how to fold tortoise, dog, elephant and monkey.

We enjoyed rock climbing.

Fine Dining at Romeo and Juliet restaurant, with starter, main course and desserts (which we shared).

Our favourite hang-out place - the Optix (Deck 10), where we played table soccer, wii and card games.

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Lim Li is now officially the top scorer in Singapore for Froggy Jump, with a score of 2,071,984. The 2nd highest score in Singapore is 1,152,708. The world's highest score is 67,116,504 (by someone in USA), and Lim Li is ranked 223rd in the world.

Friday, 26 November 2010

Yesterday I attended a Logic and Games Math camp at NUS High. At the camp, there were only 3 girls out of 18 students, so sad.

We played the frog puzzle, the one where the frog can only walk 1 step or jump over another frog. We must find the formula for the number of moves depending on n number of frogs, which is n^2+2n. Other games we played include: Nim, Cross the River, Quadrant tic-tac-toe, etc. The student helper Ananya Kumar said that Lim Jeck had been blabbering about minecraft for the past 3 days and Lim Jeck said that the graphics was great (the sun, moon, stars, clouds and hands are squares and everything is pixelated ☺).

At lunch, the food was not buffet kind, but a packet of bee hoon with egg, fish, otah, fish cake and ikan billis (see picture). For tea breaks, we had packets and biscuits. So pathetic right ... actually, not so bad, I am just exaggerating and I brought home 4 packets of drink and a lot of biscuits until my bag was so full that I could not put my pencil case inside and I had to put it in my pocket.

Friday, 19 November 2010

This is posted by LL's mum.This year the EOY Prize Giving Ceremony is held at night (7.30 pm) instead of in the morning (as in previous years). There is also a cultural night performance after the prize giving ceremony. Lim Li gets two awards - Top in Maths and Top in Science. She wants to apply to only NUS High for DSA next year, and has no intention to try other schools like RGS and NJC. I think NUS High is probably suitable for her :). Like her two older siblings, she is stronger in Maths and Science and weaker in the languages.

Tuesday, 16 November 2010

This is posted by LL.
My score for Froggy Jump is 1,070,532. I am ranked 3rd in Singapore and 592th in the world. Aren't I pro? The current highest score in the world is 67,116,504.

The top score in Singapore is 1,152,708. I think I could have easily beaten this record if I had not given up after playing for more than 1 hr and getting very "xian". I thought the top score is 500k+, otherwise I would have perservere to earn the top spot. So wasted!!!! My feeling now is opposite of this ☺

Monday, 15 November 2010

School holidays are around the corner, it means we can read comic books to our hearts' content. Recently, we borrowed this Bakegyamon book from the Jurong Libary. There is only 1 of this English comic title in the Jurong and Central Libary and it is only until volume 3. However the Chinese version has all 5 volumes.

The story is about Sanshiro (the red-cap boy), whose father is an adventurer and he wants to follow his father's footsteps. So a guy called Fue (beside Sanshiro in the picture) brought him to play Bakegyamon, a game that comes every 44 years for thousands of children to play and the winner will get 1 wish granted. Demons are turned into cards (Sanshiro is holding it in the picture) for the players to use to fight. Many players think that the demons are items but they are not. Being a kind and considerate boy, Sanshiro decides that his wish is to free the demons, if he wins the game.

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Part of the team from the Singapore delegation to the China Western Mathematical Olympiad (CWMO) left this morning in the wee hours for Shanghai Pudong airport. Mr Thomas Teo accompanied the 7 students - Wei Liang, Wayne Lin, Zhan Xiong, Ding Yue, Ryan Kor, Joseph Kuan and Lim Jeck. Everyone gathered at about 11 pm. However, the flight information display system showed that there would be a 3-hr delay to the China Eastern Airlines flight, which was originally scheduled for 12.55 am. Later, there was another delay and eventually the group left at about 6.25 am. The picture is taken from Mr Teo's Facebook, and it shows the students catching 40 winks while waiting for their flight.

From Shanghai Pudong airport, they will be taking a coach to Shanghai Hongqiao airport to catch a flight to Taiyuan, where the CWMO competition is held.

Another teacher, Mr Derrick Wong, will accompany the 8th student, Zhang Aidi, and they are taking tomorrow morning's flight.

On the day of his return, Lim Jeck will be taking his Chemistry exam at 2 pm. The next day, he has Physics in the morning. Both are "non-study" subjects so he should not have problem handling them without doing any revision during the trip. It is fortunate that he has been exempted from the Chinese & Biology papers on 29 Oct, and there is no need for any make-up (otherwise he may have to bring his Biology notes for the trip). There will be a make-up (date not known yet) for the English paper that he will miss.

This trip does not have much impact on Lim Jeck's schedule at NUS High - he will only miss 2 days of revision and 2 reading days since it is exam period. I think he will miss 2 lectures and 1 tutorial at NUS, where he is taking the Calculus module. I was more worried for him when he participated in the last two IMOs as there was a long stretch of absence (3-4 weeks) from school. Next year, the IMO will be held in the later part of July, which means that if Lim Jeck is selected for IMO again, he would probably miss more than 5 weeks of lessons. The intensive daily training (except Sunday) usually starts before the June holidays and ends on the day before the competition (about 2 months). I wish that the trainers would allow the students to attend class and only train them during weekends, so that there is less catch-up on lessons missed and tonnes of tutorials/assignments/projects not done, after the IMO competition. I think I am probably more stressed than Lim Jeck, whenever he has missed a long period of lessons. He, on the other hand, is quite cool and unperturbed by such things.

Posted by Lim Li.Someone asked if I kept my medals in an album. No, the medals were dumped somewhere in the display cabinet below. My NMOS medal is in the second picture below, centre row, with the bright red ribbon.

After that, we proceeded to Tiong Bahru Plaza's McDonalds. Mr Ng gave us a treat. He is very very super super rich and generous. Then, we saw his mother pass by. He said that his mother exercised everyday and looked very youthful though she is 60+.

Inside the MRT carriage on the way home , Step sat on the reserve seat and Mr Ng remarked "Are you pregnant?" Then, someone (cannot remember who) said that Step could sit on Mr Ng's lap.

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

I will be going to China for the China Western Math Olympiad (CWMO) 2010, from 26 to 1 November. There are 2 teams, total 8 of us from the National Team. The CWMO 2010 will be held in Taiyuan, Shanxi of China.

As my year end exams are from 29 Oct to 2 Nov, I will not be able to take 3 papers - Chinese, Biology (29 Nov) and English (1 Nov morning). Not sure of the make-up for the missed papers ...

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

This is posted by LL ☺
Someone posted the following question on the cbox:

Container A contains 250 red marbles and 200 blue marbles. Container B contains 600 red marbles and 150 blue marbles.How many red and blue marbles must be moved from Container A to Container B such that 25% of the marbles in Container A are red and 75% of the marbles in Container B are red?

Friday, 24 September 2010

This is posted by Lim Li.In Angry Birds, you are supposed to kill the green thingy by shooting the birds using a catapult. I do not play it often as I am stuck on level 3-12.

In Plants VS Zombies, you are supposed to kill the zombies by planting plants to attack the zombies and to prevent them from eating your brains. Sometimes, I play this game with my cousin, Liu Qin, who just completed the game like me and my sister and brother (we completed the game long ago).

My mother keeps saying that this is our favourite game because she always sees us playing it. However, we play it everyday because we need to get the gems (one gem can be obtained per day from the word game) to buy stuff which help you play the game better. My high score is 278686, but the highest in the world is 30 something millions!

In Farm Story, we are given a plot of land to plant and harvest crops to earn money. If we don't harvest the plants, they will die. This game is rather repetitive and boring, but we play it every day. We are now at level 42.

Thursday, 16 September 2010

This is posted by LJ's mum. My kids practically grow up with Tomy Megasketcher, a magnetic drawing board. It is their favourite toy. It has a unique screen that allows one to draw clear and crisp pictures, unlike the rough pictures drawn on honeycomb type magnetic board made by Fisher. I bought the first one when Lim Min was 4 or 5 years old and to-date I must have bought over 10 of them (about 1 every year) as the impression left on the drawing surface become quite faint after some months of heavy usage.

When my kids were young (before schooling age), they loved to to draw random pictures and complicated mazes (Lim Jeck's favourite), and now they use it to practise spelling/ tingxie, solve maths problems or just doodle and scribble.

Sunday, 29 August 2010

I went for the Hwa Chong Math Quest 2010 yesterday. We (my mother, Lim Li and I) took 3 buses (186, 153, 174) from my house and alighted at HCI's 1st bus stop (there are 3 bus stops that lead to 3 different HCI entrance gates). There was some construction going on and the first gate was closed. So we walked to the 2nd bus stop. Still no open gate in sight. We then took a bus (luckily it's distance-based fare now, so it was free or cost only a few cents) to the 3rd bus stop, and entered HCI through the 3rd gate. The whole HCI was like a ghost town (it's Saturday at 8 am) and there was not a single soul to guide us - no signs on the Math Quest and no Hwa Chong students around to provide direction. It took us quite long to find LT3 (competition venue at 2nd level) as the direction signs to the LTs are not very clear. Fortunately I was not late. My mother and Lim Li then left for the RGS Speech Day and Prize Presentation Ceremony, as Lim Min has won an award.

Yay, NUS High has won the Individual 1st and Team 1st in the Hwa Chong Math Quest. I got a ridiculously huge trophy, a TI Graphic Calculator (my 3rd one, I had 2 from the NJC Math Challenge 2010), a 2 GB TI Thumb Drive and $50 Popular Book Vouchers.